I tried it for a day–I bet it does work. Because you are essentially not getting very many calories a day. I think if you follow their diet plan you are consuming less than 1000 calories a day, and I’m not a nutrition expert but that didn’t seem healthy to me. BUT–I do eat Special K when I’m in a pinch for a low fat/low calorie meal.

If I were you, I would just try to start exercising and eating a healthier diet. But I’d probably stay away from the Special K plan.

I have Special K for breakfast because it sticks with me better than other cereals (and I’m a cereal girl for breakfast), but didn’t do the whole diet because it sounded like I would be hungry all. the. time.

I think if you ate only one bowl of any cereal instead of a regular lunch or dinner for 2 weeks, you’ll probably lose weight. I think you’ll be very likely to gain it back though as soon as you start eating real amounts of food again. ;-/

I did it once years ago and hated it. You’re pretty much starving for most of the time and starving yourself only does more damage (as in screwing your metabolism).

What works for me is regular exercise and breaking food up into 5 small meals a day…breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, happy hour snack, dinner. For me, breaking it up like this means I’m not suuuuuper hungry at regular meal times and letting my eyes get bigger than my stomach.

It was a looong time ago. It’ll work for the weeks you do it, after which you’ll gain everything back, and it’s not healthy, it made me tired, cranky, and bored. All diets work through calorie restriction: it’s calories in versus calories out. However you do that–whether it be via salad and organic orange juice or two bags of M&Ms a day (or just Special K). To lose weight healthfully, eat a large variety of fruits and vegetables and cut back on sugar (and simple carbohydrates) and alcohol. If you really want to see a drop on the scale (which will be more for your psychological comfort), you can eat a lot of mild diuretics (asparagus, dandelion root tea, cranberry juice) and drink tons of water (like 64-80oz per day) and as a result, your body will de-bloat.

(And by the way–11 pounds in 2 weeks is going to be mostly water. What happens when you cut back so drastically in your calories is your body panics, dumps all the glycogen you are storing in your muscles (glycogen is glucose + mostly water, hence “water weight”), and thus begins to cannibalize muscle, not fat. Some muscle cannibalization will occur when you lose weight no matter what, but this is why slower is better–you maximize the fat you are getting rid of and minimize the muscle you are losing (that’s also why you should exercise–to help you offset that muscle loss). 1-2 pounds per week is recommended.

They want you to eat two meals consisting of cereal… where are the fruits and veggies & protein? Also, if you have one serving of special k with skim milk & throw on some fruit that’s about 250 calories each meal. I eat about 300-350 for breakfast and 400-450 for lunch.. seems like it’s just extreme calorie restriction, which isn’t great for the metabolism.. and the snacks that they offer are water and granola bars.. again I ask, where are the fruits and veggies??

I did the Special K diet before the wedding. Around a the 1.5 months out mark. And I did lose weight, and I ate a heck of a lot afterwards and I didn’t gain it all back right away. It’s not about JUST eating two bowls of cereal and that’s it, you can snack, but they just recommend that you snack on fruit or veggies or cereal bars, so it’s not like you’re going to lose out on your 5-a-day or anything like that. For the first couple days I felt hungry but then after that I got used to it and it was fine. If you want to do it then go for it. Get yourself several different cereals so you don’t get bored (also, you’ll go through a lot of cereal to start with) and see if it works for you – every diet is different for different people.

I tried it a few years ago, but had to give up because I found myself feeling really irritable because of it. I think it probably would have worked, but it’s certainly only to be recommended for short term weight loss as it’s definitely not a balanced diet. I think eating healthily and exercise would be much better for the long run.

It’s a ridiculous but effective marketing ploy. Yes, when calories in are less than calories out, you will lose weight, but that doesn’t make it healthy. And as others have pointed out, you lack essential nutrients when you’re limiting 2 of your meals per day to cereal.

I just joined Weight Watchers and some things I’ve learned is that it’s really good to eat breakfast and to eat filling food with high dietary fiber. I do eat Special K sometimes, but supplement it with a banana or something else filling so I don’t feel like I’m being deprived.

I have done this diet in the past and for me, it just didn’t work. I was hungry all the time and I didn’t really workout either. So I guess if you do this diet and workout, you’ll get results, but I wouldn’t suggest it.

Eating it for breakfast is fine, which I do now, but I incorporate other things in my meals now…chicken salad..turkey wrap..and small “mini-meals” or snacks in between.

I think that for the long run, exercising and a healthy diet is the way to go. I hope this helps.